Forced To Take a New Direction
by AfroPony53
Summary: What happen if something happens in old Aperture and Chell and GLaDOS are forced to find a away to pervent Aperture from exploding? Well? Wouldn't you like to know?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Old Aperture has other plans**

"Oh hi." Chell automatically frown at the sound of GLaDOS voice. "Say, you're good at murder? Could you-ow, murder this bird for me?" Chell stood from behind the glass compartment, having some type of satisfaction of watching GLaDOS get pecked by a brid. Though part of her found it sad, GLaDOS looked so vulnerable but she wanted no part of this. She did want to be deceived by a machine again, especially not by GLaDOS.

She turned her body and headed towards the open door. "No wait!" Chell came to a complete halt, was that desperation in her voice? Never had she ever heard GLaDOS have plead in her tone. "Just kill it and we can call things even between us." She added.

' _Fine,'_ Chell inhaled deeply before walking toward the nest, having no intentions of actually killing the bird. She instead scared it off, "Oh, thanks." Chell could hear the relief from her voice, followed by a brief rumble emitted from the upper parts of Aperture.

"Do you hear that? That idiot has no idea what he's doing up there. I can't move. And unless you're planning to saw your own head off and wedge it into my old body, you're going to need me to replace him. We're at an impasse. So what do you say? You carry me up to him and put me back into my body, and I stop us from blowing up and let you go." Chell raised a brow, suspicion still formed in her gut. "No tricks. This potato only generates 1.1 volts of electricity. I literally do not have the energy to lie to you." GLaDOS said, trying to conceive the test subject.

Chell rolled her eyes and didn't want to hear anymore rambling from GLaDOS. _'To hell with it,'_ She thought to herself as she used the portal gun to pick up GLaDOS (Well, she stabbed her with it). ' _I hope you're right about Wheatley or we're both screwed.'_

. . . . . . .

As Chell flew through the air, gracefully landing onto an intact compartment. She could see the manual button to open the hatch that lead straight out of the old Aperture. "Wait! I've got an idea!" GLaDOS exclaimed, this certainly caught Chell's attention as she stopped her hand from reaching over and pressing the button. "That poster! Go look at for second, would you?" Chell did exactly that.

"Paradoxes." The former supercomputer simply said.

 _'Paradoxes?'_ Chell scrunched her nose in confusion.

"No A.I. can resist thinking about them. I know how we can beat him." GLaDOS said with a more hopeful tone.

The test subject then pressed the red button and to her delight the giant hatch from above slowly but surely began to open. As soon as she spotted the lift descending down and made it's stop on the platform, she leaped down and made her way onto the lift. They began to be lifted upwards and finally out of the old Aperture. One step closer into possibly retaking Aperture and her freedom will be guaranteed...hopefully.

"If you can get me in front of him, I'll fry every circuit in that little idiot's-" GLaDOS stopped in mid-sentence as the lift suddenly just stopped.

"Hey? What's going on?" GLaDOS asked confused, as Chell was just as confused as her, looking up to see the reason for the sudden delay.

Red lights began to flash as the giant hatch slowly began to make its way closer and closer to them. It was closing and they were in the middle of it and to make matters worse, the lift shook with uneasiness; threatening them that it fall back down to the ground.

"Oh! You gotta be freakin' kidding me!" GLaDOS noticed the cables losing its grip on the ceiling until it snapped from it's place. Thanks to Chell's quick reflexes she jumped out of lift and landed on the ground. She took a couple of steps back just before the lift came crashing down right before their eyes.

The woman looked up once more and the hatched had tightly sealed itself against the ceiling. 'Damn it! What the hell do we do now?' She wondered as she looked at GLaDOS for any possible answers.

"Well we are doomed. That was the only way that was close enough to bring us the Enrichment Center." GLaDOS said with dread in her voice. "Oh my precious facility. I would have never thought in a millions years it was going to be destroyed by an incompetent moron. Woe is me!"

Chell shook her head in disbelief, this couldn't be the only way. There has to be another way, she didn't want to die in the depths of Aperture. No. She refuse to believe it. The woman shot a portal into the compartment she had just left before and to the nearest white wall. She quickly went towards the open portal and notice a bird perched on the red button with chunks of wire in it's beak.

"That evil thing! It is to blame for our inevitable demise!" GLaDOS yelled which spooked it and it flew away with the pieces of wires in it's mouth. "Come back here you coward!"

The test subject came up the control panel to assess the damage. The bird had managed to mess with one of the loose panels and pulled out some wires. It probably mistaken it as materials for nesting. "You should have killed it! This would never had happen if you killed the damn thing!" The former supercomputer said with frustration and Chell shot her an annoyed glare.

 _'Damn it!'_ Chell mentally cursed at herself as she set the portal gun down and tried to fix the torn wires but she ended up shocking herself a couples of time. Though she had no idea what the hell she was doing, she stopped once the pain of electric volts coursing through her body became unbearable.

She ran her fingers through her dark brown locks and leaned against the wall, sliding down until she hit the floor. Her heart pounded heavily against her chest and for the first time, she was scared to the point where tears began to uncontrollably roll down her cheeks. She didn't care whether GLaDOS was watching her or not, nor did she care if she was view as weak in front of the former supercomputer. It was all too much to comprehend the fact the she may die in Aperture. _'Am I really going to die in this miserable place?'_ It was simply too hard for Chell to believe.

GLaDOS watched the human as strange emotions began to surface. She wasn't sure if she was mad at the fact that Chell seemed to have given up so easily(which was out of her character). Or if she was mad that, that moron made her most greatest test subject succumb to her weakness and she herself had barely scratched the surface on that.

"How dare he. How dare he!" GLaDOS said as rage filled her voice. "The only one who is allowed to break you is me! I will not stay here and die knowing that he mentally defeated you. No. That is only exclusive for me only!"

Chell shot another glare at GLaDOS, her cheeks still wet from the tears. She bit down her lips to preventing herself to let out her rage and sorrow to be heard.

"I can't believe I'm doing this but If I'm not wrong. Which I never am. There should be a manual override that will shut down the entire facility. It should prevent it from exploding us into oblivion-." Chell interrupted her as she grabbed the portal gun and hugged it. "Ah! Cease that right now. Don't you dare try to rub your fat wet cheeks on me-" It was too late. Chell nuzzled the potato.

"Okay, okay! You can admire me later in a less disgusting manner. But for now, let's put an end to the imbecile party." She said as Chell nodded in agreement, wiping the tears from her face and sniffling a bit.

 **A/N: This formed into an idea that came out of no where and I couldn't help myself. I just had to. Not sure whether I should make it T or M. Eh, I'll leave it at T for now. I might change it to M rated later on though. I don't know.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Retracing your footsteps?**

If GlaDOS had a pair of lips-better yet, if she had an arm and a hand. She'll probably use an office sharpie to draw an upside down "U" on her potato body to represent how frustrated she is with everything that has gone on.

But who could blame her? She was sure enough she was going to lose everything she held dear to her. The testing. The confined protection of the Enrichment Center. Burning people in the incinerator (well, her testing bots, all of the humans perished after the lunatic killed her) and especially the of the few thing that gave her a purpose of being an animated being and now, it will soon all vanish.

All that she would have left of Aperture would be...Chell. No, she couldn't allow herself to be attached to this mute lunatic, even if she would be the only thing that would remind her of her home. She pushed these thoughts as far as she could-as a matter of fact, she shouldn't be thinking of her test subject as on object to mourn on. It was simply too human and she had been reminded in the past she was far from being human. They were right, she was nowhere as pointlessly cruel enough to be a human.

She couldn't make any promises though, she wasn't sure on how good of a condition office was in. Nor did she want to make any calculations on the probability of them finding the office in one piece, considering how much this place has decayed over the years. To make matters worse, she no longer have the blueprints of old Aperture installed within her. Being stuffed into a potato have really has taken so much of her data, she does not have the capacity to even solve a simple problem or risk firing her only energy source.

She hated to admit it but Chell is the only one she could rely on at this moment. She can only hope that Chell's lucky stride wouldn't run out. Though the ground shook and groan under the mini explosion taking place above , that serve as a constant reminder on how limited of time they had left.

And that scared her.

Chell finally made it back to the old testing courses, breathing heavily from exhaustion. 'Damn.' She mentally cursed at herself. She pushed herself too hard, dashing though this place like a complete maniac is not going to make the situation any better. Her body begged her to slow down and so she did. Taking slower stride to ease her aching muscles.

"Chell?" GLaDOS called to her in an all-too-calm-voice. Something Chell has not yet became use to, she had expected some type of insult to come after that. "I know you hate me and that's completely fine, there's no doubt that I don't feel the same way towards you." And there it was...kind of?

The former test subject frowned her brows in confusion. Sure, GLaDOS is stating the obvious but now is not the time to express their dissatisfaction towards each other.

"But, If we die. I just wanted to let you know that you were my greatest enemy. And quite possibly. . . my only f-frr-." She simulated the sound of clearing her throat, though she found what she did completely unnecessary and probably due to her limited energy. She acted on impulse. "What I'm trying to say is I don't view you as a person I want kill as much as I use too. But just by a small fraction."

The woman looked down at GLaDOS, slight shocked before her lips curved upwards into a small smile. 'That may be an actual genuine compliment I may possibly get from her.' She shook her head a bit, determination sparked in her eyes and she flashed the potato with a bigger smile, full of confidence and her brow frowned downwards implying the same expression she had use when she had escaped death from GLaDOS many times before.

"Ughh. I hate when you look at me like that. But you're right, let's not make lemonade! And now's not the time to be sentimental. We are far from losing to that moron. Just a little more!" GLaDOS said, confident as well. Even though she would never admit it to Chell, that small little encouraging she got from Chell made her feel a little bit better. It almost made her forget they were on the edge of a life or death situation.

After another 30 minutes of heading deeper into Old Aperture, GLaDOS is pleased on how much process they had made. She was sure they would still be stuck in the old testing courses, wasting valuable time in solving them but they finally made it out. With 40 minutes left to spare.

"You're getting close. All I can tell you is that his office is near a docking station we use to have under here. I don't know where it is exactly but have you seen a docking station somewhere down?" GLaDOS questioned.

Chell nodded her head. She has been near a docking station while she was trying to find a way out of this place. But she hasn't really stopped by to notice if there was an office that resemble a CEO.

"Let's just hope we get there on time. Also do you mind picking up the pace a bit. That overweight bird might find another way to ruin our life again." Chell rolled her eyes at that comment before she turned her full attention on finding office again.

. . . .

"There! Over there!" GLaDOS practically yelled. "Hurry! We literally have ten minutes left!"

Up ahead, severely rusted metal double door with a cracked plaque on the side of the door that read ' 's executive office'. Chell had never felt so relived in her life once she saw 's name. She dashed towards the double door and kicked it open, not even bothering to acknowledge GLaDOS quite, distasteful mumbling for her actions.

The woman graze the office, broken glass scattered the floor and she could see from the window frame, they were at a docking station, high above. The pitched black water seemed to stretch for miles into a deeper part of the cave. Impossible to simply think of swimming her way out of here.

Chell set her trusty portal gun on the desk as she frantically searched for a button or lever that could be hidden somewhere in here. She pulled at the desk's drawers and finally found a metal box with a big red button that was protected by a glass case.

"Did you find it yet?" GLaDOS asked as she couldn't see Chell, since she is facing the opposite direction from the former test subject.

Chell turn the portal gun towards her, so now GLaDOS can see what she had found. "Oh, thank goodness. You did find it. So what are you waiting for? Push the button!"

The woman popped the case off of the box and she pushed the button. She looked around to see if anything had changed and it seem as if GLaDOS was doing the same thing. Until the ground violent shook beneath them, that alone answered their question.

"Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System detected." A robotic voice said from an intercom in the office. "As a part for Aperture's ECT protocol, please place the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System into the core transfer unit." A panel from the floor opened open and the transfer mechanism raised up a few feet in the air, ready for the transfer."

' _...She only wanted to save her own skin!' T_ he former test subject clenched her teeth as she looked at GLaDOS with hatred and betrayal. "Don't look at me like that. I don't even know what the hell is going on! I-

"Um hello? Hello?" Mr. Johnson voice came over the intercom. "Is this thing on? Caroline, is this thing even on?"

"Yes, sir . Just speak into it sir." Caroline whispered.

"Mr. Johnson?" GLaDOS question.

"Okay, thank you. This is a pre-recorded message, so no, I'm not actually talking to whoever is there. I see you found the ECT. The Emergency Core Transfer. I'm sure you're confused and GLaDOS told you this is the Manual Shut Down. But it's not. But in case of an extreme situation or if those black mesa bastards are trying to steal our hard work, the lab boys actually designed something in GLaDOS to bring you here. Which you are here, hero or heroine." Chell's entire expression turned into confusion.

"We decided to have a moveable body for GLaDOS, but it's not finish. So really it was either between a slight unfinished robotic body or a manual shutdown. Ehhhh, we went for the body, it far more important. So enough of my rambling, Time is of the essence as they say. So here and get on with it."

A robotic body fell from the ceiling, thick black wires is the only thing holding it up. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me." GLaDOS said as the ground violently shook again.

 **A/N: Thank you for the support , I wasn't sure if this story was great enough to continue but I'll continue to write more if you guys are still interested. Thank you for reading :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Stop the explosion!**

' _What the hell is this!?'_ Chell immediately felt her stomach drop. She was going to die. She just could not wrap her head around the idea that this damaged looking robotic body was going to stop the explosion. It's entire right arm is missing; it looked like someone pried it apart from it's body and just neglected to never come back to fix it . It also has a nasty crack on it's left eye. Plus the fact they are within minutes before this whole place explodes...Maybe she just accept the fact she's on the edge of death row?

"Chell. Put me in the ECT." GLaDOS said in a calm voice, which kind of angered Chell. How could she be so calm with all of this? She must know that this body is in a horrible condition and doubt it could save them both.

GLaDOS read the expression on her former text subject's face. "I know how this looks. And to be quite honest with you, this may be the last time will ever see of each other. Must be a relief huh?" Her tone soften. "I don't know why but something in me is telling me to get into that body. That's probably the desperation talking. Even if we do end up dying, at least give me the decency that I tried to save my facility."

Chell frowned before she slightly lowered her head in defeat. She was going to die anyways and it was partily her fault that this whole place is going to be destroyed. The woman went over to GLaDOS and ripped her out of the portal gun's arm. "Ow! I can still feel. Why can't you be gentle for once?" GLaDOS complained as Chell placed her on the ECT.

At first nothing happened and for a moment, they assumed it was broken but as Chell came closer to remove GLaDOS. The potato began to spin until GLaDOS's optic turned into a dull grey and the potato stopped turning.

The woman watched as android body twitched and slightly swung from side to side with only a few thick black cords holding it suspended it in the air. After a few moments it finally opened it's one good eye, an instant flash of yellow. She had successfully transferred over to the body. GLaDOS emotionless gaze steadily settled on Chell before frowning heavily. "...It's too late." The android utters its first words before a sudden shock wave engulfed them both. GLaDOS body violently went flying towards Chell as the entire office fell into the pitch black water.

She couldn't move, could barely see, and couldn't breathe. The overwhelming heat that struck her body felt as if she was being boiled alive. The only thing that was keeping her from being severely burned to the point of the death is GLaDOS's body acting as some sort of barrier. The androids left arm managed to wrap itself around her. As if she was...protecting her.

With every ounce of her strength she had left, she slightly peeked over the supercomputer's shoulder to see a series of flashing bright orange and yellow lights piercing through the murky water, as a cloud of dark red clouded her vision.

It seemed as very second that has passed by, the lights faded further into darkness and her vision as well. She is drowning and there's nothing she could do about it.

She closed her eyes as she can no longer hold her last breathe.

She unwillingly accepted her fate as she saw nothing but darkness.

. . . . . .

She's has got to be the luckiest human she had ever came across.

GLaDOS watched the unconscious woman, taking ragged breaths as if her lungs were fighting to take in air. "What makes you so...you? How could a simple human endure so much just to be the bane of my existence?" She question as filthy water still continued to drip down her white synthetic hair. She even question as why she had the urge to tend to woman's injuries.

She blamed this new body. The programming within this body is causing her to have these disgusting feelings. Even so, she could not simply ignore it. GLaDOS used the jacket wrapped around the test subject's waist as some sort of bandage to tend to burned flesh. Lucky for Chell, she only had first and second degree burns on the side of her neck, right ankle, and right arm. GLaDOS suspected she also has a couple of fractured ribs from her abnormal breathing movements.

She frowned as she turned her gaze onto the burning computer monitor, occasionally setting out to find more flammable materials to keep the fire going. "Oh my facility. Why did it have come to this?" She mourn, hatred slowly consuming her thoughts and reason of logic. She just hated everything more about the pest right in front of her. She hated even more of the fact that she didn't have much of a drive to want kill her as she had before.

Hell, she had just unconsciously save the former test subject from drowning even though that was one of her many fantasies of how she would want to watch Chell die.

The supercomputer continued to ponder for a while, going through the files and data of this humanoid body. She instantly knew she and Chell needed to leave this place. There's a certain destination they need to go to. It was quite far from Aperture but something telling her that she need to go. This body was not fit enough to last much long but far better than staying in a potato.

Possibly a new facility? A better version of a body for her? She couldn't be sure but it's beckoning her to come.

But for right now. She'll wait for the mute lunatic to wake up. It'd be suicide to go on the surface alone. Too many flying beast that could snatch her up again and eat her alive. Plus, she doubts that the test subject would make it without her assistance anyways. Not that she cares, just a fact.

Any time now, Chell will wake up….Hopefully.

 **A/N: So sorry for the late update xd. And I don't want to rush on the story too, I tend to take my time on things. And I know this is short too. I'll try to make things longer...maybe.**


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